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Minor League Wrap (5/7-13/12)

Baseball America’s first mock draft of the year has us taking C Mike Zunino because Buxton somehow goes second to the Twins. Discuss this entirely too much.

In this week, we have a walk-off grand slam, mention of a 27-game safely reached streak, possible breakouts from prospects that people have pinned a lot (too much?) of hopes on, the vagaries of splits, competent pitching in Tacoma (!!), a team going 2-4 while remaining in first place, and baseball baseball baseball baseball baseball.

I didn’t expect to be highlight The Power Sphere two weeks in a row, but when he’s slugging nearly a thousand it’s harder for me to say “yeah, he’s hitting, but this other guy who’s hitting way worse in relative terms is an actual prospect.” The things I have to put up with. To recap, Jimenez is hitting .476/.569/.905 in May over eleven games, after hitting just .231/.326/.436 in April, which was still better than a lot of guys hit. He’s also only suffering a platoon split of about a hundred points for the season (lest his numbers against right-handers be even more insane) and he’s OPSing over 1.000 for the season. It’s hard to see a place for him on the roster when we’re giving DH at-bats to Carp, Jaso, and Montero, but baseball is dumb and plenty of things can happen in a season.

Coming into the week, I had expected that Ramirez would be given a couple of starts, providing me something additional to care about in the Tacoma rotation, but I did not anticipate Carraway. Nor did I anticipate Carraway’s results. Carraway was perfect through the first six innings on his way to ending Tacoma’s seven-game losing streak, and that was enough to get him a story in the TNT, a feature on MiLB.com, and a Built to Spill reference from Mike Curto, and I can’t imagine that he gives those out to just anyone. The prospect-watcher in me wants more Ks, obviously, but the results against a good-hitting Albuquerque team are not to be dismissed. The other three pitchers in Jackson will likely be slower coming along, so if ever there were a year for Carraway to try to break into the big leagues, this is it.

From The Training Room:
Monday set off a series of transactions, as RHP Stephen Pryor got the promotion to Tacoma. In Jackson, he had been striking out 39.3% of the batters he faced, walking just 8.2%, and allowing hits to 11.5%. So, to parse that out a bit, he was ringing up about twice as many batters as were permitted to reach against him. Kind of a big deal. The loser in the exchange was LHP Mauricio Robles, who had been running a sub-1.00 K/BB. The hope is that he’ll figure out how to throw strikes somewhere else. Good luck with that… Wednesday afternoon, OF Carlos Peguero was activated from the DL after roughly four and a half weeks dealing with the knee thing. He had a couple of singles his first night back. He also struck out three times. Bless him. OF Mario Yepez was sent back to Clinton to make room… Thursday brought more movement, as RHP Brian Sweeney went on the DL with a sprained neck/concussion which does not sound good at all. That resulted in RHP Andrew Carraway coming in from Jackson. He had been running a 3.12 tRA in Jackson, and with the variation of league tRA, that’s a bit worse in the larger scheme of things than it was last year. He’s striking out more guys but also allowing more line drives it seems. I don’t know.

Strange Happenings:
Brandon Bantz has only played in nine games, but is batting .357/.367/.607 in those nine games. He’s the best… Anthony Vasquez opened Sunday’s game with consecutive strikeouts. Minds were in fearful anticipation of being blown. Then he struck out one the rest of the way. Keep at it, champ… Snow might have garnered a mention here, but he faced two batters in the seventh inning on Wednesday and the result was a two-run shot. Otherwise, his line was 6.0 IP, 6 H (HR), 5 R, 8/2 K/BB, 2/5 G/F, 2 WP… Jeff Marquez, a right-hander, had two pickoffs at first on Tuesday… Curto notes that Perez’ save of Carraway’s game was his first since 2000 when he was in the Mexican League.

Here is an exchange between a co-worker and me on Friday:
Co-worker: “They should call up that Pryor guy from Tacoma.”
Me: (blank stare)
Co-worker: “I hear he’s throwing like a hundred miles an hour.”
Me: “No, I know who he is, I’m just surprised that you do.”
Co-worker: “What? I read the paper.”

When he was in High Desert, one of the things I talked about regarding Dunigan was that he was capable of doing interesting things, like showing plate discipline or hitting for power, but he wasn’t often doing them at the same time and that in and of itself was concerning. Dunigan has walked five times in May, and his on-base percentage is 101 points above his average. In April, he drew four walks total and had an on-base percentage thirty points higher than his average. Also during April, he had 59.3% extra-base hits and had seven dingers. His isolated slugging was .337. This month, 23.1% of his hits have gone for extras. His isolated slugging is .100. The more things change, the more they stay the same in some cases.

Thus far, Maurer has been the forgotten man in the rotation, which wasn’t really what I expected. Overshadowed by pitchers with superior command? Certainly. Not mentioned at all? Unexpected, particularly when he leads the team in innings pitched. A huge component of this is that his strikeouts have been uncharacteristically low. This marked the first time this season that he’d struck out more than three in a start. For his career, he’s posted a K/9 under nine just once in a season. Strikeouts, and to a lesser extent walks, had been a given. I’ll credit him here though for context: Huntsville is one of the best hitting teams in the league (though poor at walking) and rank second to last in strikeouts. A performance like this would seem to be legit.

Extra Pitching Notes:
Some might be questioning, “Why Maurer over Paxton and Hultzen, particularly when Hultzen didn’t allow too many base runners?” It’s the walks really. Huntsville has the second fewest walks drawn, just ahead of the good ol’ Generals, and Tennessee is just ahead of them. There are teams that you probably can’t avoid giving out walks to, but those that you can, you probably should. Besides, Hultzen had 60 of 95 pitches for strikes, and still managed to walk four? That’s just weird. And he’s only managed two starts so far where he’s walked fewer than three. Anyway, to cover the last head of Cerberus, Taijuan Walker had a weak outing this week, lasting just four innings and giving up two runs on four hits, two walks and four Ks. He probably hit a pitch count and then got the hook.

From the Training Room:
The stuff with Pryor/Robles has already been covered. Also happening on Monday, RHP Moises Hernandez, aka Felix’s bro, hit the DL with a shin contusion, and LHP Steve Garrison came off it. Because of the recent doubleheader in Pensacola, the rotation was left off-balance and Garrison was immediately used to spot start and stagger it out into its normal order. Which will now include Garrison anyway. More on that later. Concurrently with that, IF Eddy Martinez-Esteve was reinstated from the DL and released. EM-E was the third-round pick of the M’s in 2002, and then the second-round pick of the Giants in 2004. He had various health issues and his development was hampered by that… Tuesday afternoon, RF Johermyn Chavez went on the DL (hamate bone) and LF Daniel Carroll (dislocated shoulder) came off it. Thanks to Larry Stone for the causes there… There was no immediate corresponding pitching move to Carraway going to Tacoma, but there was a hitting move as 1B Rich Poythress hit the DL with a sprained left foot and IF Steve Proscia was promoted to Jackson. Proscia was hitting .431/.453/.843 at home and .286/.333/.329 on the road for the Mavericks. This should be a learning experience for him… Nick Franklin was used gingerly this week. That seems like a word I should scope out the etymology for.

Strange Happenings:
Almonte only had three hits this week, but that’s less concerning to me. What I like is the fact that he walked seven times, which is two times more than he struck out… This is the line from Steve Garrison’s second start: 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1/0 K/BB, 3/0 G/F… Ken Griffey, Jr. dropped in on the Generals last week to hang out for a while. Griffey!

Here’s a player I don’t talk much about. So Mike McGee! McGee was our 14th-round pick last year. In 2010, he won the inaugural John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award. You see, in addition to being an outfielder, he was also the closer for the Florida State Seminoles. He was initially listed as a RHP when we picked him, but that was quickly rectified. Expect him to show up some time in a blowout. Since I’m talking about him specifically as a hitter, this year he’s showing no L/R splits, but he’s batting .372/.429/.767 at home and .255/.359/.345 on the road, which means he’s one of the guys that I’m concerned about in the long run.

Thursday’s game was an ordinary one at Mavericks Stadium. Which is to say that the wind was blowing fifteen miles an hour out to center field. Which is to say the teams combined for five dingers. Which is to say that the results of Gillheeney wound up looking a bit worse than how he pitched, seeing as how he struck out 40% of the batters he faced. It also represented something of a rebound for Gillheeney, or rather, one of his better commanded outings. Last time out, at Visalia, he had a 2/3 K/BB with a couple of dingers allowed among seven total hits. Two outings before, he had a 2/4 K/BB in 5.1 innings at San Jose, but evaded most trouble of the run-scoring variety. The overall line just looks fine for him because he’s sprinkled in outings like this, but he hasn’t gone more than five and a third yet and he has spots where he’s struggled to get strikeouts. I don’t know what his deal is, but let’s just say for now that the numbers might be a little misleading on a few different fronts.

From the Training Room:
OF Julio Morban didn’t have to spend too long on the DL, as he came off it on Monday and almost immediately resumed hitting. I sure wish he could stay healthy somehow! IF Carlos Ramirez was transferred to Clinton to make room… Since Proscia left, another move had to be made and that was C/UT Jack Marder coming off the DL yay. His first game back was in left field. Coleman remains with the team as a third catcher. Marder has gone 5-for-15 with two doubles and a walk since coming back.

Strange Happenings:
A curious thing happened Saturday night. It was late and I was waiting for the Mavericks box score to go final. Drawing into the eighth inning, the Quakes had just scored four runs to put them ahead 6-7. When they scored another run to open the inning, I figured that would be that, but then the Mavs scored two in the bottom half of that inning, on various singles, doubles, walks, and wild pitches. “It could go to extras,” I thought to myself. That thought was quickly displaced by resignation, as the Quakes scored four runs in the top half of the ninth, and what had been an 8-8 tie quickly turned into a 8-12 deficit. “Oh well,” I thought, “process over results and at least I won’t be stuck waiting here indefinitely.” I was right about part of that as the bottom half of the inning came around.

… The bullpen allowed 17-of-22 inherited runners to score this week. Wheeeeee!… Miller has been down to one or two errors a week. It’s not great, but much improved over the start to the season. Hicks has been allowing about one passed ball a week. That’s…. bad.

A couple weeks ago, people were asking me how long the leash was with Pimentel, and my stock answer based on Morla and Littlewood was that, as bad as he was hitting in April (worse than either of those two did last year), he’d probably get a couple of weeks in May and then get the hook. Guillermo, forgive my sins. This week, he’s been showing plate discipline, hitting for extra bases, and showing off all around. But because I can’t go through any performance this positive without being a terrible buzz kill, both Kane County and Beloit are known to give up their share of hits and Pimentel is hitting an absurd .042/.080/.042 against left-handed pitchers in his paltry 24-at-bat sample this year. Things to worry about if you are a worrier.

With younger pitchers, you often find yourself scrutinizing various trends in their development and trying to make sense of what’s going on with them based off of the subtle shifts that might occur from one month to the next. Take Landazuri as an example, even if our May sample is presently a little short. In April, he walked 9.1% of the batters he faced and had a .165 average against. Now in May, his walk rate is 2% and other teams are hitting .277 off him. There’s a slight shift in Ks too, from 20.9% to 18.4%, but mostly what we’re seeing is that, after missing the strikezone a lot in April, he’s been more around it in. Let’s see if he manages to adjust again to reduce the hits while not increasing the walks that much.

From the Training Room:
The biggest shake-up on Monday was happening in Clinton. In addition to adding Ramirez, the Lumberkings picked up middle infielder Bryan Brito and RHP Ben Cornwell. RHP Wes Alsup, IF Jean Acevedo, and OF Alfredo Morales all went back to Peoria. I’m only slightly bothered by the loss of Acevedo, since Morales wasn’t getting playing time and Alsup was struggling to throw strikes. The addition of Brito is probably the most interesting as he seems to have his fans in the organization right now and it would be nice to add to the infield depth… Yepez came back later in the week. I think that’s because 3B Ramon Morla is on the DL, seeing as how he hasn’t played since the 5th.

Strange Happenings:
Something that I picked up in the game notes, and probably mentioned at some point this year, but Jamal Austin has hit safely in 23 of 27 games and has reached base in every single game since April 14th. The weird thing about that streak? He’s only the second-longest streak in minor league baseball, and the other guy is in the MWL too… Shipers CG shutout last week was the first thrown in the Midwest League this year. Milestones!.. Steve Baron leads the team with eleven doubles. Coming into Sunday’s game, that was good enough to tie him for 6th in the Midwest League. I will remind you that the Midwest League is freaking huge… How the heck did Pimentel not score a run this week?

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Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.